October 20th-26th
My first weekend in Lundazi didn’t get off to a good start. On Friday Ragini and Melina weren’t feeling well and got worse as the day progressed. Late on Friday night Ketan started to show the same symptoms. On Saturday all three decided to go to the clinic to get checked out for malaria – luckily they didn’t have it and drinking water from the bore hole in Lumimbia was blamed. Thankfully, I had not drunk a lot of this water and escaped the sickness. Nevertheless, I learnt a big lesson, at their expense, for when I return to the Valley!!
Due to the illness, Ketan and Ragini’s leaving party was postponed from Saturday evening until Sunday. However, Rose and Melina (even though she wasn’t feeling well) began to prepare the chicken for the party on Saturday. At last, I had the opportunity to see for myself what Ragini and Ketan had been telling me about every time we ate chicken!! It’s a lot cheaper here for families to buy the chicken live and kill it of food. Of course, I am used to buying the chicken already prepared for cooking in the supermarket, so you can imagine my shock when I walked into the kitchen and saw two chickens walking around the floor!! In the afternoon the chickens met their fate in our backyard as they were killed, de-feathered, cleaned out and cut into pieces ready to be cooked the next day.
The following day both Ragini and Ketan felt much better and we had a typical lazy Sunday morning before Rose and Melina came to start to prepare for the arrival of guests. All of the districts water and electricity comes from Malawi and every other Sunday both are cut off for maintenance work. It was just our luck that it worked out that on this Sunday both would be cut off. Nevertheless, it did not damped spirits and with the help of a few candles and a generator we managed to get some light and Zambian music to get the party going. Mathias and heads of departments in the area made speeches which welcomed me to RFDP and Lundazi and, of course, said fond farewells to Ragini and Ketan. It was strange that I had only met the couple a week ago but I felt I had known them much longer and I owe them a lot for helping me settle into life here.
After deciding to delay their departure by a day in order for them to recover fully from their illness, Ragini and Ketan spend most of Monday packing and saying good-byes whilst I went to the office to continue with work. After work both of them took me to a house where you can get, in Ragini’s words, “the best ice-cream n Lundazi”. It was the home of an Indian family and they warmly welcomed us in. They asked us to spend some time with them and brought us Indian tea and sweets. For me it was great to experience a tiny bit of India in the middle of Lundazi, especially as Ragini and Ketan had told me so much about Indian culture. Afterwards, we ate the ice-cream and I have to say it was pretty good!!!
In the wee hours of Tuesday morning Ragini and Ketan finally left Lundazi as they continue on travels through Zambia on their way to South Africa. At work Mathias and I drew up a work plan for me and I suddenly realised just how much work I have to do. The majority of my time will be taken up by find sources of funding for RFDP projects including for water and sanitation development based on Ketan’s Needs Assessment. I’ll also be fundraising for RFDP to buy its own vehicle and for money to hold events on International Aids Day on December 1st. Another dimension of my role will be visiting local schools to continue ongoing youth education and recreational programs concerning HIV/AIDS awareness, water and sanitation, environmental protection and Girl Child education. In the next few weeks I should also have another field trip to the Valley to meet community volunteers and visit more RFDP projects. So, I’ve loads to do and only two weeks left of my first month to get things started – the next few weeks are going to be very busy!!
Tuesday also brought the first rain – but it isn’t the showers of rain we mostly get in Ireland! It was a complete down pour and then everyone said that the rains don’t get heavy until December or January!!
Wednesday was October 24th – Zambian Independence Day and it was marked by activities at the main football pitch in Lundazi. After a long speech from the District Commissioner, there was some traditional singing and dancing. There was a strong message running through the celebrations which was that although Zambia received independence from Britain forty three years ago, poverty, HIV/AIDS and economic constraints keep its people from bring completely free. More rain cut the festivities short and I went to Melina’s home for lunch. I had not eaten nshima since I was in the Valley and didn’t realise how much I had got used to it!! We had a lovely meal and as usual received a warm Zambian welcome from Melina’s family.
Thursday and Friday was spent in the office starting work on researching different funding sources, whilst at night I was getting used to a quiet house following the departure of Ragini and Ketan. It won’t be quite for long though as Melina will move in at the weekend!
Another busy week, with big changes and learning loads… and its only week two!!! J